EAST BRUNSWICK (NJ)
CentralNewJersey.com
November 20, 2018
By Vashti Harris
Striving to address recent sexual abuse revelations within the Catholic church, St. Bartholomew Church served as a host to a listening session for patrons to voice their concerns.
“The church decided to have a listening session for all Catholics of our parish and surrounding parishes in order to hear about how they are feeling about the sexual abuse crisis and ask for their opinions for what actions the church can take going forward,” parishioner MaryEllen Firestone said.
More than 30 patrons attended the session that was facilitated by Sister Margaret Conlon of Sister of Charity of Saint Elizabeth on Oct. 22 at St. Bart’s in East Brunswick.
Conlon has ministered to high school students and families, as a teacher and counselor, in Jersey City for more than 20 years. For the last 27 years, she has ministered as a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor at Emmaus House, a holistic center for women religious, in Ocean Grove. Conlon has facilitated programs for suicide prevention for youth as well as groups and retreats for adult women in recovery, according to a prepared statement from the St. Bartholomew Church.
The session began with parishioner JoLynn Krempecki talking about the history of the crisis and the church’s response.
“Today we are in a terrible state in the Catholic church. The sins of some clergy that have been committed in the dark were brought to light in 2002. These were sins of sexual abuse against children,” Krempecki said. “Sadly, not all of the abusers were named [and] some abused children were afraid to come forward.”
In 2002, the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team published an investigative article exposing systemic sexual abuse against children in the Boston area by numerous priests.
“When the Spotlight was shown the [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] scattered to make decisions that was suppose to ensure that such things would never happen again,” Krempecki said. “They put guidelines and provisions into place and since then all who work with children must go through criminal background checks and also must have training that teaches people where the boundary lines are. This is a national policy and this is a policy in this diocese and every parish and every Catholic institution are checked regularly for compliance.”
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